Upgrades planned for Oklahoma travel plazas

TULSA, Okla. — The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority plans to upgrade its travel plazas to provide turnpike customers with a more modern setting when they want to eat and run.

Drivers will get their first glimpse of the future this fall when the Lone Chimney Plaza opens just west of Oklahoma 18 on the Cimarron Turnpike.

The authority spent $250,000 to prepare the site and then turned the property over last week to McDonald's, which will construct a $1.8 million, 10,600-square-foot building that also will house an EZ Go convenience store and fuel stop. It is expected to be open by December.

The Turnpike Authority also is considering a plan to upgrade and expand all of its plazas and rest areas, some of which are at least 25 years old, before its leases with vendors have expired.

"People will notice aging buildings right now because that's what we have," said Jack Damrill, the authority's public information officer. "We don't hide the fact that we don't have the prettiest facilities in America, but that will change."

Damrill said the plazas near Chickasha, Walters, Eufaula and Antlers may be among those targeted to become combination buildings similar to the Lone Chimney Plaza. It's also time to evaluate future needs at the W.D. Bill Hoback Plaza near Stroud and the historically significant McDonald's "glass house" restaurant that spans Interstate 44 near Vinita, he said.

The authority is looking at the whole system to decide whether it's time to build mega-plazas or to just update facilities, he said.

Other states offer 25,000-square-foot buildings with food plazas, shops, gasoline stations and showers, Damrill said.

"This is really early on, but we would love to have a beautiful facility and get a developer who would draw up a huge plan for us," he said. "Of course, a mega-facility is going to cost mega-millions."

The authority's lease with McDonald's for the restaurants on the Turner and Will Rogers turnpikes expires next year, but its lease with EZ Go doesn't expire until 2018, Damrill said.

The Vinita-area McDonald's needs more restrooms and fuel services and additional ways to get customers upstairs to the restaurant, which takes up almost 30,000 square feet, he said.

"Our first job is to try to renegotiate with our current vendors before we look for someone else," Damrill said.

The agency received about $1.5 million in concession revenue from turnpike vendors in 2007.

In other long-range plans, the authority is looking at expanding the Turner, Kilpatrick and Creek turnpikes to six lanes, Damrill said, adding that the Turner Turnpike has the most pressing need.

About 25,000 vehicles a day pass by its Stroud plaza. The daily vehicle count on the Will Rogers Turnpike near Vinita is about 20,000.